Slough
curated by Steve DiBenedetto
May 28 - June 23, 2009
New York, NY, April 30, 2009 - David Nolan Gallery is pleased to announce Slough, a group exhibition curated by gallery artist Steve DiBenedetto.
The impetus behind this exhibition is the flexibility of the word slough, which has various interpretations. When pronounced slew, slough can describe a bog-like, swampy, dark, primordial and somewhat mysterious realm. The alternate and less used, but maybe also appropriate interpretation, is a state of moral degradation or spiritual dejection that one cannot extract oneself from. Slough, as in sluff, also refers to that which has been cast aside or shed off, like a skin. It can also describe the manner in which material tends to accumulate at the edges of a performed task, such as the accumulation of dust on the rim of a fan, snow on the edge of a shovel, or trash in the breakdown lane of a highway.
Either way these notions in a very general sense will be used as the stimulus to explore ideas about marginal territory, accumulation, holes and residue. Some works will have a more obvious connection to these conditions (i.e., Larry Poons, Jessica Jackson Hutchins, and Tony Feher), while other works might be a little more unexpectedly related (i.e., Jessica Craig Martin, Philip Taaffe, and Hanneline Rogeberg).
A certain dynamic at work will be the inclusion of things that may not even be apparent as art at first, coexisting with virtual masterpieces of traditional forms. The works, which represent a highly diverse range of mediums, from established 20th century masters to cutting edge contemporary artists, will associate with various states of deterioration and repair, forging unusual and unforeseen connections between old and new work.
While not an exact follow-up to DiBenedetto's last curatorial effort, Loaf (2000), which involved sculpture exclusively, Slough will bring back some of the same artists.
Proposed artists include: Vito Acconci, Joe Bradley, Werner Büttner, Dan Colen, Carroll Dunham, Keith Edmier, Tony Feher, Lucio Fontana, Jessica Jackson Hutchins, Eugène Leroy, Markus Lüpertz, Jon Kessler, Fabian Marcaccio, Jessica Craig Martin, Matthew McCaslin, Pat McElnea, Jonathan Meese, John Miller, Malcolm Morley, Larry Poons, Hanneline Rogeberg, Dieter Roth, Alexander Ross, Bill Schwarz, Mike Scott, Michelle Segre, Frank Stella, Philip Taaffe, and Andy Warhol, among others. - b. 5-05-2009 6:04 pm
Opening May 28, 6 to 8pm. - b. 5-05-2009 6:10 pm [add a comment]
Hey Doughton, anything here sound familiar to you? - alex 5-05-2009 9:42 pm [add a comment]
I do seem to remember some performance art thing at The Kitchen... - steve 5-06-2009 1:26 am [add a comment]
looks like a good show. props to Steve for keeping the meme...alive? - steve 5-06-2009 1:45 am [add a comment]
My Pilgrim's Progression also included an extended discussion of the slew/sluff pun with Andrew Tyndall which ended up in a slough of despond... - alex 5-06-2009 2:05 am [add a comment]
What was the Pilgrim's Progression? And what was the discussion? - steve 5-06-2009 3:17 am [add a comment]
Just more punning. With the modern collapse of allegory The Pilgrim’s Progress has faded from contemporary consciousness, but it was once hugely influential, and while Vanity Fair is probably it’s best remembered addition to the language today, the Slough of Despond is perhaps the best known use of the word slough as well.
My conversation with Andrew ultimately ended up with a disagreement as to proper usage by my childhood landlady’s handyman, Scotty, who was pretty much a perfect comp for Willie on the Simpsons. He once refused an assignment to paint the inside of an old cupboard because it was “sloughed with dirt” (or as he put it “slewed wi’ dart.”) He actually tried to get me and my friends to clean it for him but we weren’t having any of it. He knew we were wastrels because he’d previously had to unclog our toilet by retrieving a pipe that had somehow got flushed. Although it was a standard tobacco pipe he was sharp enough to note that it had a screen in it, which meant that we were up to no good…
- alex 5-06-2009 5:37 pm [add a comment]
Wow. Very cool. Did you streamline these from film frames? - jim 5-06-2009 2:01 am [add a comment]
Selected frames rotoscoped in adobe illustrator. From the book FORMING published by Abaton Book Company part of the FIVE AND DIME series. Someday I'll make a flash animation. (yeah right) - steve 5-06-2009 2:02 am [add a comment]
heres a bit more:
"Everyday Is Like Sunday" a song by the singer songwriter Morrissey contains the line in "the seaside town that they forgot to bomb" which was inspired by the line "Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough" from Betjeman's poem "Slough" from "Continual Dew". [8] Morrissey chose one of Betjeman's poems, "A Child III" for his NME complimation CD "songs to save your life"
The comedy series The Office, set in Betjeman's dreaded Slough, features manager David Brent (Ricky Gervais) reading a few lines from the eponymous poem, before deriding Betjeman as "over-rated". (The real irony lies of course in the succeeding lines which Brent does not utter, vividly condemning the archetypally boring, sexist office manager).
the american office is set in scranton.
we used the word slew (slue) for several.
we used the word slewn for casually tossed.
Well, of course I assumed that it was obvious that this was all in some way indebted to Alex's fixation on this term/word/condition from years ago.....Not tryin to pretend I got any new ideas here ...By the way, there was a difference between "Slough" and the famous "Quagmire of Film" no? For this I just figured I would do my best to try to remember what the concerns were back then and put it to work as some sort of template for an exhibition.,,,as opposed to ,say. doing any new research. Hope thats ok..Was put in a position to do a show and frankly thought how can I get Bill and Poons in the same show...Jasper graphite face drawing came to mind as well as Rauschenberg erased DeKooning but reality intervened...Always a next time i suppose. Hope everybody comes..Should be a nutty opening....Show actually runs to 27th of June - Michelle S 5-12-2009 2:05 am [add a comment]
I submit that you've researched the subject extensively.
We might actually be able to make it to the show before it ends. - steve 5-12-2009 8:16 am [add a comment]
That would be awesome...! See you guys at PICA thing...? - Michelle S 5-12-2009 2:13 pm [add a comment]
Only Erin will be at the pica thing - steve 5-12-2009 8:32 pm [add a comment]
I'm just sorry there's no recreated performance at the opening. Who wouldn't want a gallery splattered with goo? - alex 5-12-2009 12:01 pm [add a comment]
Steve may correct me, but I think he used Slough as the title for the performance in which he peeled off successive layers of goo-lubricated bodysuits while DiBi drummed and I consumed. It was performed live at the Kitchen in support of a Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black show and subsequently filmed at DiBi’s studio on 14th St somewhere around the 80s/90s boundary. Steve had his own antecedents like his youthful film Melt Face, and it wasn’t much of a stretch to tie into my Psychedelic musing on Sloughing which I pursued as a sort of Hermetic approach to The Thing Which Continually Emerges From Itself.
Quagmire of Film (title adapted from Quagmire of Doom, a Marvel Comics Sub-Mariner episode) was the second, and more coherent, of the multimedia events Steve and I produced as Utmost Projections. It had amazing footage Steve shot at the America Museum of Natural History and my narrative and the highest techest effectests we could accomplish in that bygone era. It was more Smithsonian than Sloughesque overall, but the thread was there, including the Snow Shovel segment, which remains the only film I have ever directed, shot in Central Park with Steve as cinematographer and me on shovel.
Besides Mushrooms, an influence worth mentioning here was Duane Elgin’s Continuous Creation theory, published in ReVision, a journal out of Esalen which was then edited by Stan Grof and featured academically ambitious fringe stuff by the likes of Terence McKenna. In the pre-net days it was hard to find that sort of thing and it all seemed to make sense when you did.
Sloughing supposes a Core which Emanates until it reaches a Limit at which point it Dissipates. We like to identify with the Core, but Life takes place at the Dissipate Edge.
Alex, ol boy,...yes, right on...I knew this stuff (Slough) mattered in some way.... I always thought "Quagmire" was a major work of its time, worthy of Anthology Film status...Where is it now?...Had that crazy eye shit thing going on, right? Sort of follow up to Bunuel-Dali right? .Yet, as accurate as the Dr.'s observations usually are, I cant help but wonder if he's confusing the thing I did at the Kitchen w/ Parrino & Kevin Jones in '89 with some other occurrence ... - Michelle S 5-13-2009 3:31 am [add a comment]
Alex, Steve DiB and I did perform together at The Kitchen, as openers for The Voluptious Horror Of Karen Black. The title of the piece was "Meug" with Steve DiB on Moog (was it Parrino's?) not drums, and Alex on newspapers, Tropicana and Milano's. The three of us performed it again at WEBO, on the Lower East Side. A few months later we "performed" it for posterity, captured on super -8 film by Kevin Jones in Steve DiB's 14th st studio.
Most of the camera original, super-8 Quagmire Of Film footage seems to have disappeared. All I am able to find are part of the first reel, all the super-8 outtakes (cutting room floor stuff) and a 3/4" film to tape transfer of the whole piece. I am bumping some video to dvd next week, I'll include Quagmire in the transfer. I do still have the camera original film Kevin shot. - steve 5-13-2009 4:57 am [add a comment]
Newspapers,Tropicana and Milanos...!!! What exactly does that sound like?
-sdb - Michelle S 5-13-2009 4:54 pm [add a comment]
fortunately Alex wasn't miced. - steve 5-16-2009 12:16 pm [add a comment]
good old dayz.....we having some evening shows at DMT10 - Skinny 5-16-2009 11:21 am [add a comment]
"Forming"....fucking brilliant!! I ve got to do "Slough" film fest...w/ that, whats left of "Quagmire", "Halter Top" and,,,oh, maybe all 5 Cremaster fims..? Any other suggestions.?
sdb - Michelle S 5-18-2009 1:37 pm [add a comment]
'Through a "synthetic flesh" composition that he himself has created, Wells has been creating artificial limbs and a horrific mask to carry out his crimes in order to collect living samples of human flesh for his experiments. It turns out at first for years he had been searching for a secret manufactured flesh and eventually finds it; so, he went to Africa one time, not to study cannibalism, but to get samples of the human flesh the natives eat.' - steve 5-18-2009 2:41 pm [add a comment]
Oh man...speaking of ASKING!! - Michelle S 5-18-2009 3:34 pm [add a comment]
For the Slough film festival-- does anyone know the name of this fifties b-movie?: Man lives through horrific fire where his face becomes disfigured beyond recognition...burned body of another man is found in fire...disfigured man uses this opportunity to disappear, pretending to be dead man found in fire...leaves everything behind, wife & kids, etc...eventually is arrested and with his true identity still unknown, is charged with his own murder...he goes on trial for killing "himself", even his wife testifies against him...is found guilty and sentenced to die on the gallows. And it actually ends with his execution! Not a glimmer of hope in sight, just pure misery from beginning to end.
If anyone knows the name, i'm trying to locate this piece of happiness, maybe propose a musical version...
mich - Michelle S 6-01-2009 2:50 am [add a comment]
and it continues with lots of stuff like
Obey the poetry of psychedelic legalese.
Steve, Alex and Steve 10-24-90
page 2
everyone involved listed and at the end
Thanks to Mike Wheeler for playing the role of Steve DiBenedetto (dont even ask)
((((did this happen, help bring me back!!)))) - Skinny 5-18-2009 3:04 am [add a comment]
We told you not to ask. - alex 5-18-2009 4:36 am [add a comment]
We will be there on the early side. 6pm sharp. Looking forward to looking Steve. - b. 5-28-2009 3:09 am [add a comment]
the whole wheel-brown team will be there at 6 too, than getting to-go at Angelica's Kitchen when we LOVE - Skinny 5-28-2009 11:12 am [add a comment]
Slough Blurb:
Spelled S-L-O-U-G-H
Slough. The utterance, whether pronounced as Sluff or Slew is summoned from a deep place, then slurred on the way out. Meanings, too, may slur and skew, and slide into a miry slough (slew), but we must slough (sluff) off the imprecision of this sodden bog we slog through and dredge from words the best that’s to be found in them. (We will not here even consider the British town that rhymes with cow.)
Though separately derived, the S-L-O-U-G-H words are united in their counterintuitive relationship of spelling to pronunciation, and often cause a moment’s disconnect between eye and tongue when encountered on the page. In meaning they may also seem at odds, for the Slough of slop and bog, of unnavigable backwaters, has metastasized into a metaphor of hopelessness, but in that other Slough which means the shedding of the skin Hope itself may yet be exposed.
The Sloughing Snake is a primeval symbol of the self-regenerative capacity of Life, born of some Force that driven forth from its ineffable Source emanates from Within and passes outward until at its rough Limit it dissipates in shards of Slough, even as the original impetus reappears from underneath in fresh new skin, and so on, and so on… The Thing That Continually Emerges From Itself, persisting through time in successive rinds that blend in the eye and in the mind like separate frames of film parlayed into a unity of manifestation.
That is what happened in the Beginning, and continues to happen, to the Universe as a whole and in its individual entities, like us. Most of household dust is human skin sloughed off. It is perhaps just as well that we don’t drop our entire skin all at once like the snake; else we’d have to endure our childhood sloughs, stuffed, gathering dust on mother’s mantle. But one piece or particulate, the principle remains the same, and we must confess to Sloughing as much as any serpent. There is no shame therein, and it’s time to do away with cosmetic euphemisms like “exfoliation.” In fact, by focusing on Slough in a properly contemplative manner we may fashion a conception that integrates a metaphorical understanding of Creation with a literal description of our own ongoing, though ever abrading, condition in the world. This strain of thought amounts to a sort of postmodern Hermeticism with the goal of creating a living image of Time and Being, under the implicit assumption that such a thing must prove salving to the soul, if not salvific.
Such an appreciation of Slough participates in the new millennium’s greening of consciousness, replacing the mechanistic with the living; the Big Bang becomes the Big Birth, and Hope inheres in Life’s reSOURCEful tenacity, even in the face of its own obtuseness, as where we experience it, here at the very Sloughing edge of deity, the ever moving, ever shredding, ever living Limit of what Is.
Likewise, and to fulfill the promise of the pun, this mode of thought comes to the rescue of the other Slough, saving the swamp from Bunyan’s slander, revealing the supposedly fetid fen’s true identity as that of the vivacious wetland, a focal point of deposition and reconstitution now recognized as the essence of healthy recycling and growth rather than the entropic cesspool of cessation; a Slough not of Despond, but Respond.
So we have a choice. We stand amid the dust of our own flesh; if our necessary dissolution pains us, we may shed tears that falling on our castoff Slough will mix into a sludgy Slough that we can hardly struggle through. But if we chose to shrug our dust off and focus on the newborn skin risen from within, then we may find Hope, the hope that we will finally learn that there is only one true Word, which we may learn to speak, even should it clog our mouths with a slew of meanings.
Way to slog out of the Smithson hole. Is this going out in the PR package? - steve 5-28-2009 3:25 pm [add a comment]
damn, you guys are so crazy! - sarah 5-28-2009 7:44 pm [add a comment]
What....? You're just figuring that out now??
Was a great night, yes...Gratz for coming
-sdb - Michelle S 5-30-2009 3:54 pm [add a comment]
great show! luckily we made it out before lucio and ryley broke anything. - linda 5-29-2009 1:33 pm [add a comment]
It was a good one. I thought I was going to see Alex reading the paper in the corner eating cookies. Cograts Bill and Steve - ken 5-29-2009 1:52 pm [add a comment]
Yes, it looked great. Sorry we had to leave so fast. - jim 5-29-2009 2:18 pm [add a comment]
Yeah, good shough. And after at GSI Lex plenty food & drink, courtesy Nolan, took up the whole place. - alex 5-29-2009 2:21 pm [add a comment]
Nice. we were at GSI on the other side of town thinking of you all. Great show. I want to get back there for another more thorough look. Maybe a walkthrough with the curator?. And one or two of the star artists? - b. 5-29-2009 4:05 pm [add a comment]
Any time baby...!
-sdb - Michelle S 6-01-2009 1:16 am [add a comment]
very nice, you must have felt like kings and queens taking the place over. Great show! Michele, you curating the next one? - sarah 5-29-2009 6:48 pm [add a comment]
Bill's other piece Based on the few works on the gallery page the show looks very interesting. Hopefully we'll get to see it before it comes down. - steve 5-29-2009 9:15 pm [add a comment]
Yesterday I began the process of transferring Quagmire of Film to DVD. The source tape is in excellent condition, I had forgotten how good the color is on tape. Included on the DVD will be the other films that ran within the whole show:
Forming
Melt Face
Meug (the film version of piece performed at The Kitchen
Betwixt
Tswa (by Wen-Chi-Chen and Jillian Ni
Steve DiBenetto, if you are serious about doing a Slough film festival I think you should consider giving Alex and me a night to perform/screen Quagmire. IMHO it's a better project than I ever realized (spinning atoms projected on Mr. Wilson's head as he bongs out) truly ill.
Are you game Alex? Also, I am sure I have the film version and that it's only misplaced. I have found all the original footage we used to make the multi-screen stuff. In some respects I think the DVD version will look better. - steve 6-16-2009 8:29 pm [add a comment]
entire show is now on DVD (stll needs sound) I'll bring copies to the ten year - steve 6-20-2009 5:10 pm [add a comment]
Mr.Steve...
I would like to do S-F-Fest...Dont know how much I can demand from gallery now, but frankly sort of thought the whole thing depended on showing Bill"s classic "HalterTop" but...like, he cant find it... so...? Totally want to see what you"ve got.....Anyway we discuss at dmt-ten
-sdb - Michelle S 6-22-2009 3:51 am [add a comment]
Sad to hear that Halter Top (aka Pert) is missing. Very much looking forward to discussing the Slough Film Fest. - steve 6-22-2009 5:03 am [add a comment]
I cant believe Pert is missing:<(( - Skinny 6-22-2009 11:26 am [add a comment]
the vhs version is god knows where in my 70+ rubber-maid storage tub collection in admans basement and barn as is the original with edit spliced s8 film version. its never been duped into non-spliced film. its not lost i just may not be able to find it. but ill look for them this week. and it will need new leader tape at least. - bill 6-22-2009 1:53 pm [add a comment]
not found is lost:>)
and i want to cry..... - Skinny 6-22-2009 2:27 pm [add a comment]
Im inclined to agree w/Skinnyman on this one......But for Gods sake dont misplace 70's Rubber Maid tub collection!! - Michelle S 6-22-2009 3:33 pm [add a comment]
Find that film or I will kill a puppy. - jim 6-23-2009 12:34 am [add a comment]
i found it today. i have versions on super 8 and vhs. i have a projector but no vhs player. - bill 6-23-2009 1:46 am [add a comment]
I found the Quagmire script, still looking for the snow shovel film. - alex 6-23-2009 7:17 pm [add a comment]
the projector is a bell and howell autoload. design 462A, its 120 v 5 amp 60 cycle / a sticker reads: use only DJL bulbs. the printing on the blub reads: GE 150w 120V DJL made in usa. the bulb in it is the only one i have and for now it lights. any ideas on an extra bulb(s)? - bill 6-23-2009 8:58 pm [add a comment]
how are them belts?and don't forget the q-tips and lemon pledge - steve 6-24-2009 4:16 am [add a comment]
carefully remove bulb for travel, they don't like being jostled. And don't touch bulb with fingers. Skin oil will begin to fry once the bulb heats up and shorten bulb life. - steve 6-24-2009 4:17 am [add a comment]
I wish we had a projector! - jim 6-16-2009 8:36 pm [add a comment]
I'm up for it. I think I even have the original of the snow shovel film somewhere. - alex 6-16-2009 11:48 pm [add a comment]
dig it up. - steve 6-17-2009 12:07 am [add a comment]
extended through july 24! - bill 6-19-2009 4:36 pm [add a comment]
where the fuck is the slough film fest thread? and way, they were in the next to last tub. my complete super 8 high school archive :
(the epic 20+ min) homocidal teen age lust
panic in detroit
halter top (aka student body) also: vhs copy
1976: s8 documentary of bob wades jumbo (bicentenial) map (dallas texas)
das photographer 1986: (miami beach)
also found:
my two vhs tapes issued by the port authority of ny nj 1983 after the first bombing:
"welcome back to the wtc"
-and-
"new fire safety instructions"
(both made by and staring Port Authority employees) ive never heard of other copies of these tapes since they were either watched and thrown out or went into storage in wtc and went down with the big one.
i also found my dads canon s8 movie projector (bulbs) and last s8 camera before he passed on. so might could do a pre-screening at dance camp.
i only trust doughton to run the projector though. even if it fucks up he takes the best archival care.
- bill 6-22-2009 6:40 pm [add a comment]
BIG SMILES!! - Skinny 6-22-2009 6:56 pm [add a comment]
Whew, that would have been a tragic loss.
The guy who misplaced Quagimire Of Film is our film archivist? Seriously, If we're going to run an old projector we need to add q-tips and Lemon Pledge to the shopping list and Bill should run the unit, checking that the feed and take-up hubs operate, belts tend to decompose after a few decades.
Very much looking forward to a screening of Halter Top. - steve 6-23-2009 5:09 am [add a comment]
"Slough" blurb in New Yorker..... Finally!
Sdb - Michelle S 7-20-2009 3:14 pm [add a comment]
Curious combinations of sepia and b and w. - bill 1-21-2021 9:03 am [add a comment]
It was shot in the original two-strip Technicolor process - red and green. The later but what has come to be known as the classic Technicolor process was shot on three strips (or rolls of film) each devoted only to a single color - red, blue and green. The two-strip process tends to look muddy but I think it suits Doctor X well.
curated by Steve DiBenedetto
May 28 - June 23, 2009
New York, NY, April 30, 2009 - David Nolan Gallery is pleased to announce Slough, a group exhibition curated by gallery artist Steve DiBenedetto.
The impetus behind this exhibition is the flexibility of the word slough, which has various interpretations. When pronounced slew, slough can describe a bog-like, swampy, dark, primordial and somewhat mysterious realm. The alternate and less used, but maybe also appropriate interpretation, is a state of moral degradation or spiritual dejection that one cannot extract oneself from. Slough, as in sluff, also refers to that which has been cast aside or shed off, like a skin. It can also describe the manner in which material tends to accumulate at the edges of a performed task, such as the accumulation of dust on the rim of a fan, snow on the edge of a shovel, or trash in the breakdown lane of a highway.
Either way these notions in a very general sense will be used as the stimulus to explore ideas about marginal territory, accumulation, holes and residue. Some works will have a more obvious connection to these conditions (i.e., Larry Poons, Jessica Jackson Hutchins, and Tony Feher), while other works might be a little more unexpectedly related (i.e., Jessica Craig Martin, Philip Taaffe, and Hanneline Rogeberg).
A certain dynamic at work will be the inclusion of things that may not even be apparent as art at first, coexisting with virtual masterpieces of traditional forms. The works, which represent a highly diverse range of mediums, from established 20th century masters to cutting edge contemporary artists, will associate with various states of deterioration and repair, forging unusual and unforeseen connections between old and new work.
While not an exact follow-up to DiBenedetto's last curatorial effort, Loaf (2000), which involved sculpture exclusively, Slough will bring back some of the same artists.
Proposed artists include: Vito Acconci, Joe Bradley, Werner Büttner, Dan Colen, Carroll Dunham, Keith Edmier, Tony Feher, Lucio Fontana, Jessica Jackson Hutchins, Eugène Leroy, Markus Lüpertz, Jon Kessler, Fabian Marcaccio, Jessica Craig Martin, Matthew McCaslin, Pat McElnea, Jonathan Meese, John Miller, Malcolm Morley, Larry Poons, Hanneline Rogeberg, Dieter Roth, Alexander Ross, Bill Schwarz, Mike Scott, Michelle Segre, Frank Stella, Philip Taaffe, and Andy Warhol, among others.
- b. 5-05-2009 6:04 pm
Opening May 28, 6 to 8pm.
- b. 5-05-2009 6:10 pm [add a comment]
Hey Doughton, anything here sound familiar to you?
- alex 5-05-2009 9:42 pm [add a comment]
I do seem to remember some performance art thing at The Kitchen...
- steve 5-06-2009 1:26 am [add a comment]
looks like a good show. props to Steve for keeping the meme...alive?
- steve 5-06-2009 1:45 am [add a comment]
My Pilgrim's Progression also included an extended discussion of the slew/sluff pun with Andrew Tyndall which ended up in a slough of despond...
- alex 5-06-2009 2:05 am [add a comment]
What was the Pilgrim's Progression? And what was the discussion?
- steve 5-06-2009 3:17 am [add a comment]
Just more punning. With the modern collapse of allegory The Pilgrim’s Progress has faded from contemporary consciousness, but it was once hugely influential, and while Vanity Fair is probably it’s best remembered addition to the language today, the Slough of Despond is perhaps the best known use of the word slough as well.
My conversation with Andrew ultimately ended up with a disagreement as to proper usage by my childhood landlady’s handyman, Scotty, who was pretty much a perfect comp for Willie on the Simpsons. He once refused an assignment to paint the inside of an old cupboard because it was “sloughed with dirt” (or as he put it “slewed wi’ dart.”) He actually tried to get me and my friends to clean it for him but we weren’t having any of it. He knew we were wastrels because he’d previously had to unclog our toilet by retrieving a pipe that had somehow got flushed. Although it was a standard tobacco pipe he was sharp enough to note that it had a screen in it, which meant that we were up to no good…
- alex 5-06-2009 5:37 pm [add a comment]
- steve 5-06-2009 1:23 am [add a comment]
Wow. Very cool. Did you streamline these from film frames?
- jim 5-06-2009 2:01 am [add a comment]
Selected frames rotoscoped in adobe illustrator. From the book FORMING published by Abaton Book Company part of the FIVE AND DIME series.
Someday I'll make a flash animation. (yeah right)
- steve 5-06-2009 2:02 am [add a comment]
heres a bit more:
"Everyday Is Like Sunday" a song by the singer songwriter Morrissey contains the line in "the seaside town that they forgot to bomb" which was inspired by the line "Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough" from Betjeman's poem "Slough" from "Continual Dew". [8] Morrissey chose one of Betjeman's poems, "A Child III" for his NME complimation CD "songs to save your life"
The comedy series The Office, set in Betjeman's dreaded Slough, features manager David Brent (Ricky Gervais) reading a few lines from the eponymous poem, before deriding Betjeman as "over-rated". (The real irony lies of course in the succeeding lines which Brent does not utter, vividly condemning the archetypally boring, sexist office manager).
the american office is set in scranton.
we used the word slew (slue) for several.
we used the word slewn for casually tossed.
- bill 5-06-2009 7:46 pm [add a comment]
Well, of course I assumed that it was obvious that this was all in some way indebted to Alex's fixation on this term/word/condition from years ago.....Not tryin to pretend I got any new ideas here ...By the way, there was a difference between "Slough" and the famous "Quagmire of Film" no? For this I just figured I would do my best to try to remember what the concerns were back then and put it to work as some sort of template for an exhibition.,,,as opposed to ,say. doing any new research. Hope thats ok..Was put in a position to do a show and frankly thought how can I get Bill and Poons in the same show...Jasper graphite face drawing came to mind as well as Rauschenberg erased DeKooning but reality intervened...Always a next time i suppose. Hope everybody comes..Should be a nutty opening....Show actually runs to 27th of June
- Michelle S 5-12-2009 2:05 am [add a comment]
I submit that you've researched the subject extensively. We might actually be able to make it to the show before it ends.
- steve 5-12-2009 8:16 am [add a comment]
That would be awesome...! See you guys at PICA thing...?
- Michelle S 5-12-2009 2:13 pm [add a comment]
Only Erin will be at the pica thing
- steve 5-12-2009 8:32 pm [add a comment]
I'm just sorry there's no recreated performance at the opening. Who wouldn't want a gallery splattered with goo?
- alex 5-12-2009 12:01 pm [add a comment]
..oo0...oo0OOOoo00.....00ooo...OOOO00ooo....
- bill 5-12-2009 1:19 pm [add a comment]
Steve may correct me, but I think he used Slough as the title for the performance in which he peeled off successive layers of goo-lubricated bodysuits while DiBi drummed and I consumed. It was performed live at the Kitchen in support of a Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black show and subsequently filmed at DiBi’s studio on 14th St somewhere around the 80s/90s boundary. Steve had his own antecedents like his youthful film Melt Face, and it wasn’t much of a stretch to tie into my Psychedelic musing on Sloughing which I pursued as a sort of Hermetic approach to The Thing Which Continually Emerges From Itself.
Quagmire of Film (title adapted from Quagmire of Doom, a Marvel Comics Sub-Mariner episode) was the second, and more coherent, of the multimedia events Steve and I produced as Utmost Projections. It had amazing footage Steve shot at the America Museum of Natural History and my narrative and the highest techest effectests we could accomplish in that bygone era. It was more Smithsonian than Sloughesque overall, but the thread was there, including the Snow Shovel segment, which remains the only film I have ever directed, shot in Central Park with Steve as cinematographer and me on shovel.
Besides Mushrooms, an influence worth mentioning here was Duane Elgin’s Continuous Creation theory, published in ReVision, a journal out of Esalen which was then edited by Stan Grof and featured academically ambitious fringe stuff by the likes of Terence McKenna. In the pre-net days it was hard to find that sort of thing and it all seemed to make sense when you did.
Sloughing supposes a Core which Emanates until it reaches a Limit at which point it Dissipates. We like to identify with the Core, but Life takes place at the Dissipate Edge.
70 percent of household dust is human skin.
- alex 5-13-2009 2:31 am [add a comment]
Alex, ol boy,...yes, right on...I knew this stuff (Slough) mattered in some way.... I always thought "Quagmire" was a major work of its time, worthy of Anthology Film status...Where is it now?...Had that crazy eye shit thing going on, right? Sort of follow up to Bunuel-Dali right? .Yet, as accurate as the Dr.'s observations usually are, I cant help but wonder if he's confusing the thing I did at the Kitchen w/ Parrino & Kevin Jones in '89 with some other occurrence ...
- Michelle S 5-13-2009 3:31 am [add a comment]
Alex, Steve DiB and I did perform together at The Kitchen, as openers for The Voluptious Horror Of Karen Black. The title of the piece was "Meug" with Steve DiB on Moog (was it Parrino's?) not drums, and Alex on newspapers, Tropicana and Milano's. The three of us performed it again at WEBO, on the Lower East Side. A few months later we "performed" it for posterity, captured on super -8 film by Kevin Jones in Steve DiB's 14th st studio.
Most of the camera original, super-8 Quagmire Of Film footage seems to have disappeared. All I am able to find are part of the first reel, all the super-8 outtakes (cutting room floor stuff) and a 3/4" film to tape transfer of the whole piece. I am bumping some video to dvd next week, I'll include Quagmire in the transfer. I do still have the camera original film Kevin shot.
- steve 5-13-2009 4:57 am [add a comment]
Newspapers,Tropicana and Milanos...!!! What exactly does that sound like?
-sdb
- Michelle S 5-13-2009 4:54 pm [add a comment]
fortunately Alex wasn't miced.
- steve 5-16-2009 12:16 pm [add a comment]
FORMING
- steve 5-16-2009 5:41 am [add a comment]
good old dayz.....we having some evening shows at DMT10
- Skinny 5-16-2009 11:21 am [add a comment]
"Forming"....fucking brilliant!! I ve got to do "Slough" film fest...w/ that, whats left of "Quagmire", "Halter Top" and,,,oh, maybe all 5 Cremaster fims..? Any other suggestions.?
sdb
- Michelle S 5-18-2009 1:37 pm [add a comment]
Cornella; The Story of a Burning Bush
where evil dwells
- bill 5-18-2009 1:56 pm [add a comment]
Doctor X
'Through a "synthetic flesh" composition that he himself has created, Wells has been creating artificial limbs and a horrific mask to carry out his crimes in order to collect living samples of human flesh for his experiments. It turns out at first for years he had been searching for a secret manufactured flesh and eventually finds it; so, he went to Africa one time, not to study cannibalism, but to get samples of the human flesh the natives eat.'
- steve 5-18-2009 2:41 pm [add a comment]
Oh man...speaking of ASKING!!
- Michelle S 5-18-2009 3:34 pm [add a comment]
For the Slough film festival-- does anyone know the name of this fifties b-movie?: Man lives through horrific fire where his face becomes disfigured beyond recognition...burned body of another man is found in fire...disfigured man uses this opportunity to disappear, pretending to be dead man found in fire...leaves everything behind, wife & kids, etc...eventually is arrested and with his true identity still unknown, is charged with his own murder...he goes on trial for killing "himself", even his wife testifies against him...is found guilty and sentenced to die on the gallows. And it actually ends with his execution! Not a glimmer of hope in sight, just pure misery from beginning to end.
If anyone knows the name, i'm trying to locate this piece of happiness, maybe propose a musical version...
mich
- Michelle S 6-01-2009 2:50 am [add a comment]
- steve 5-18-2009 2:48 pm [add a comment]
my brain is leeking but adding a lot too....
I found this in the basement
PROGRAM
"...?"
- everybody, at one time or another
and it continues with lots of stuff like
Obey the poetry of psychedelic legalese.
Steve, Alex and Steve 10-24-90
page 2
everyone involved listed and at the end
Thanks to Mike Wheeler for playing the role of Steve DiBenedetto (dont even ask)
((((did this happen, help bring me back!!))))
- Skinny 5-18-2009 3:04 am [add a comment]
We told you not to ask.
- alex 5-18-2009 4:36 am [add a comment]
We will be there on the early side. 6pm sharp. Looking forward to looking Steve.
- b. 5-28-2009 3:09 am [add a comment]
the whole wheel-brown team will be there at 6 too, than getting to-go at Angelica's Kitchen when we LOVE
- Skinny 5-28-2009 11:12 am [add a comment]
Slough Blurb:
- alex 5-28-2009 12:08 pm [add a comment]
Did you write that Alex?
- jim 5-28-2009 1:26 pm [add a comment]
you know he did! well done dr.
- bill 5-28-2009 1:34 pm [add a comment]
Who else could?
- alex 5-28-2009 1:34 pm [add a comment]
DR Rocks
- Skinny 5-28-2009 1:49 pm [add a comment]
Way to slog out of the Smithson hole. Is this going out in the PR package?
- steve 5-28-2009 3:25 pm [add a comment]
damn, you guys are so crazy!
- sarah 5-28-2009 7:44 pm [add a comment]
What....? You're just figuring that out now??
Was a great night, yes...Gratz for coming
-sdb
- Michelle S 5-30-2009 3:54 pm [add a comment]
great show! luckily we made it out before lucio and ryley broke anything.
- linda 5-29-2009 1:33 pm [add a comment]
It was a good one. I thought I was going to see Alex reading the paper in the corner eating cookies. Cograts Bill and Steve
- ken 5-29-2009 1:52 pm [add a comment]
Yes, it looked great. Sorry we had to leave so fast.
- jim 5-29-2009 2:18 pm [add a comment]
Yeah, good shough. And after at GSI Lex plenty food & drink, courtesy Nolan, took up the whole place.
- alex 5-29-2009 2:21 pm [add a comment]
Nice. we were at GSI on the other side of town thinking of you all.
Great show. I want to get back there for another more thorough look. Maybe a walkthrough with the curator?. And one or two of the star artists?
- b. 5-29-2009 4:05 pm [add a comment]
Any time baby...!
-sdb
- Michelle S 6-01-2009 1:16 am [add a comment]
very nice, you must have felt like kings and queens taking the place over. Great show! Michele, you curating the next one?
- sarah 5-29-2009 6:48 pm [add a comment]
Bill's other piece
Based on the few works on the gallery page the show looks very interesting. Hopefully we'll get to see it before it comes down.
- steve 5-29-2009 9:15 pm [add a comment]
- bill 6-04-2009 2:43 pm [add a comment]
blogged by design boom
- bill 6-04-2009 2:58 pm [add a comment]
review from art21blog
- bill 6-14-2009 4:50 pm [add a comment]
Yesterday I began the process of transferring Quagmire of Film to DVD. The source tape is in excellent condition, I had forgotten how good the color is on tape. Included on the DVD will be the other films that ran within the whole show:
Forming
Melt Face
Meug (the film version of piece performed at The Kitchen
Betwixt
Tswa (by Wen-Chi-Chen and Jillian Ni
Steve DiBenetto, if you are serious about doing a Slough film festival I think you should consider giving Alex and me a night to perform/screen Quagmire. IMHO it's a better project than I ever realized (spinning atoms projected on Mr. Wilson's head as he bongs out) truly ill.
Are you game Alex? Also, I am sure I have the film version and that it's only misplaced. I have found all the original footage we used to make the multi-screen stuff. In some respects I think the DVD version will look better.
- steve 6-16-2009 8:29 pm [add a comment]
entire show is now on DVD (stll needs sound) I'll bring copies to the ten year
- steve 6-20-2009 5:10 pm [add a comment]
Mr.Steve...
I would like to do S-F-Fest...Dont know how much I can demand from gallery now, but frankly sort of thought the whole thing depended on showing Bill"s classic "HalterTop" but...like, he cant find it... so...? Totally want to see what you"ve got.....Anyway we discuss at dmt-ten
-sdb
- Michelle S 6-22-2009 3:51 am [add a comment]
Sad to hear that Halter Top (aka Pert) is missing. Very much looking forward to discussing the Slough Film Fest.
- steve 6-22-2009 5:03 am [add a comment]
I cant believe Pert is missing:<((
- Skinny 6-22-2009 11:26 am [add a comment]
the vhs version is god knows where in my 70+ rubber-maid storage tub collection in admans basement and barn as is the original with edit spliced s8 film version. its never been duped into non-spliced film. its not lost i just may not be able to find it. but ill look for them this week. and it will need new leader tape at least.
- bill 6-22-2009 1:53 pm [add a comment]
not found is lost:>)
and i want to cry.....
- Skinny 6-22-2009 2:27 pm [add a comment]
Im inclined to agree w/Skinnyman on this one......But for Gods sake dont misplace 70's Rubber Maid tub collection!!
- Michelle S 6-22-2009 3:33 pm [add a comment]
Find that film or I will kill a puppy.
- jim 6-23-2009 12:34 am [add a comment]
i found it today. i have versions on super 8 and vhs. i have a projector but no vhs player.
- bill 6-23-2009 1:46 am [add a comment]
I found the Quagmire script, still looking for the snow shovel film.
- alex 6-23-2009 7:17 pm [add a comment]
Cool!
- steve 6-23-2009 8:38 pm [add a comment]
the projector is a bell and howell autoload. design 462A, its 120 v 5 amp 60 cycle / a sticker reads: use only DJL bulbs. the printing on the blub reads: GE 150w 120V DJL made in usa. the bulb in it is the only one i have and for now it lights. any ideas on an extra bulb(s)?
- bill 6-23-2009 8:58 pm [add a comment]
The google
- steve 6-24-2009 4:15 am [add a comment]
how are them belts?and don't forget the q-tips and lemon pledge
- steve 6-24-2009 4:16 am [add a comment]
carefully remove bulb for travel, they don't like being jostled. And don't touch bulb with fingers. Skin oil will begin to fry once the bulb heats up and shorten bulb life.
- steve 6-24-2009 4:17 am [add a comment]
I wish we had a projector!
- jim 6-16-2009 8:36 pm [add a comment]
I'm up for it. I think I even have the original of the snow shovel film somewhere.
- alex 6-16-2009 11:48 pm [add a comment]
dig it up.
- steve 6-17-2009 12:07 am [add a comment]
extended through july 24!
- bill 6-19-2009 4:36 pm [add a comment]
where the fuck is the slough film fest thread? and way, they were in the next to last tub. my complete super 8 high school archive :
(the epic 20+ min) homocidal teen age lust
panic in detroit
halter top (aka student body) also: vhs copy
1976: s8 documentary of bob wades jumbo (bicentenial) map (dallas texas)
das photographer 1986: (miami beach)
also found:
my two vhs tapes issued by the port authority of ny nj 1983 after the first bombing:
"welcome back to the wtc"
-and-
"new fire safety instructions"
(both made by and staring Port Authority employees) ive never heard of other copies of these tapes since they were either watched and thrown out or went into storage in wtc and went down with the big one.
i also found my dads canon s8 movie projector (bulbs) and last s8 camera before he passed on. so might could do a pre-screening at dance camp.
i only trust doughton to run the projector though. even if it fucks up he takes the best archival care.
- bill 6-22-2009 6:40 pm [add a comment]
BIG SMILES!!
- Skinny 6-22-2009 6:56 pm [add a comment]
Whew, that would have been a tragic loss.
The guy who misplaced Quagimire Of Film is our film archivist? Seriously, If we're going to run an old projector we need to add q-tips and Lemon Pledge to the shopping list and Bill should run the unit, checking that the feed and take-up hubs operate, belts tend to decompose after a few decades.
Very much looking forward to a screening of Halter Top.
- steve 6-23-2009 5:09 am [add a comment]
"Slough" blurb in New Yorker..... Finally!
Sdb
- Michelle S 7-20-2009 3:14 pm [add a comment]
“SLOUGH”
The title “Abiogenesis” might have been too portentous for summer, but art emerging from primordial ooze is the drift of this rambunctious show of works by thirty-four artists (from bigwigs like Andy Warhol to young guns like Pat McElnea), organized by the painter Steve DiBenedetto. Margins trump centers. One high point, while technically in the show, is outside it: Keith Edmier’s window installation of a living cycad plant sprouting from a slab of hardened lava. As you enter, the tarnished glamour of a small silver painting by Cheryl Donegan sets a louche tone that gives way to debauchery in Fabian Marcaccio’s aggressively repellent polychrome homage to vomit. Through July 24. (Nolan, 527 W. 29th St. 212-925-6190.)
- steve 7-20-2009 3:44 pm [add a comment]
Congratulations!
- b. 7-20-2009 4:14 pm [add a comment]
- steve 1-21-2021 3:59 am [add a comment]
Curious combinations of sepia and b and w.
- bill 1-21-2021 9:03 am [add a comment]
It was shot in the original two-strip Technicolor process - red and green. The later but what has come to be known as the classic Technicolor process was shot on three strips (or rolls of film) each devoted only to a single color - red, blue and green. The two-strip process tends to look muddy but I think it suits Doctor X well.
- steve 1-21-2021 10:16 pm [add a comment]